How to make Green

In this first of what I hope will be a series of short educational videos, we are looking at the different hues and tones of green using blue, yellow and white.

​

Green (along with blue) is perhaps one of the most dominant colours in nature and comes in many different varieties so it is important to experiment with it fairly early on, especially if you are planning to paint trees and landscapes! There are numerous blues and yellows you could use to make green, in this video I am going to show you how you can make green from cadmium yellow (a strong, bright yellow) and three different blues: the deep prusian blue, the cobalt blue and the turquoise (which has already some green inside). This will hopefully give you a basic range of greens you can experiment with and use in your paintings, whether for example you are painting evergreen trees (where you can use prusian blue as a base), deciduous trees like roses (cobalt blue) or exotic seashores and banana trees (turquoise). 

​

I would encourage you to try and follow me in this video with your own pallette and acrylic colours. You can find a list of the materials I used below (I use Winsor and Newton but you can always use your own favourite brand), you can also find a hi-res photo of the finalised exercise below.